


Things We Never Said

by opalheart12, RS73



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Drama, F/M, Fluff, Other stuff later, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:37:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18851215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalheart12/pseuds/opalheart12, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RS73/pseuds/RS73
Summary: This is a series with different short chapters on how Crane and Abbie realized they were in love with each other. Each chapter will be a different trope and none of them will intersect. Willing to accept requests!





	1. It Just Happened One Day

He wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to actually recount  _ how _ he and Abbie had gotten together. It had just  _ happened _ one day. There was no earth-shattering kiss, no overt professions of love, nothing. It had just  _ happened _ .

 

Ichabod was up later grading what felt like an endless pile of essays. Abbie had just gotten back from work at the station and had, at some point, gone to take a shower. He could have sworn she hadn’t even been home. The essay before him was causing his eyes to swim and it was at the precise moment that tension and irritation began to build in his head that he heard the  _ thunk _ of his favorite mug being set on the table before him. It was white with a detailed replica of the Rosetta Stone on it and inside he caught the smell of jasmine green tea and honey. A soft kiss to his temple and a tight hug accompanied the tea and by the time his mind processed what had happened, Abbie was walking back into her room, no,  _ his _ room and shutting the door behind her. 

 

He tried to focus on the essays in front of him, really, but now his mind was buzzing in a way that was growing harder and harder to ignore by the minute. Abbie had kissed him. On the forehead, yes, but she’d  _ kissed _ him. The essay in front of him got a quickly scrawled A (no, he did  _ not _ take the time to read past the first page and a half) and he got up from the table to go to his room.

 

When he got to his room, Abbie was sitting up on the right side of the bed reading a book Crane bought her a few months back because he thought she might like it. She marked her page when she saw him come in and put the book on the nightstand.

 

Crane stood in the doorway, his mind still buzzing away madly. She stared up at him expectantly before silently patting the space next to her. It took him less than a second to race over and climb under the covers. The warm from her body radiated so close to him when he mirrored her position. 

 

“Everything ok?” she asked. 

 

“Yes, perfect actually,” Crane replied absently. “Abbie…” 

 

His voice trailed off as he looked at her, unsure of how to bring up the fact that she’d just shaken up his entire world. Eventually, he took her hand in his and he took note of the smile that bloomed across her face. 

 

“Did I mess everything up between us?” Abbie asked. “I should have asked before I did what I did. I’m sorry that--”

 

“Abbie,  _ no _ .” Crane interrupted firmly. “I don’t know that I ever would have had the courage to make my feelings toward you known if you hadn’t moved first.”

 

“Can I kiss you?” Abbie asked when they’d both been quiet for a while.

 

“I thought you’d never ask.”


	2. An Answer (Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RS73 requested the "jealous Crane" trope! I decided to combine that with the classic "BECAUSE I LOVE YOU"! This one is a two parter. Hope you guys enjoy!

The mood between them had been incredibly tense ever since Abbie had started going on dates a couple of months ago. They didn’t talk very much and often went days, or even weeks, without seeing one another. Neither of them was okay with it, but neither of them could adequately identify the reason for the acidic feelings they now had for one another.

 

It all came to a head one incredibly stormy Friday night. Abbie had come downstairs wearing a golden dress that clung to her as if it had been poured on her. The neckline plunged nearly to her navel and the dress stopped at her ankles. She looked taller than usual because of the six-inch stilettos with straps that wrapped up legs made visible by the deep slit in the dress. Her curly hair framed her carefully made-over face beautifully.

 

She was beyond anything Crane would have been able to describe. And she was going out for the night with Luke Morales. He could almost hear his blood boiling if he strained his ears hard enough.

 

Crane did his best to look as engrossed as possible in the book he was reading so Abbie couldn’t tell how close he was paying attention to her. Considering how dim the living room was and that he was sitting in the corner, Abbie left without even noticing him.

 

He felt angry enough to spit.

 

He was pissed. But not at Abbie; he could never be angry at Abbie. No, he was angry with himself for not being brave enough to reveal his feelings to Abbie. His fear of rejection had caused him to simply fall back when Abbie informed him that she was going on dates with other people.

 

So far, there had been Sophie, Danny, Andy, Caroline, and now Luke. The previous dates didn't seem to have shown much promise of anything more serious but Luke was different. This was her third date with him and Crane felt that if he didn’t say something soon his jealousy would consume him and force him to move out of the house he and Abbie shared. There was no way he wanted to be around in the inevitable event that Luke came by or, worse, spent the night.

 

Hours passed and the storm got worse. He could feel worry creeping in when he glanced at his phone and saw that it was nearly midnight and Abbie wasn’t back yet. She hadn’t said where she was going, but that was hardly surprising given they’d barely spoken to each other lately. A loud crack of thunder sounded outside and, before he could stop to talk himself out of it, he found himself calling Abbie. The phone rang twice and went to voicemail.

 

Was she ignoring his call? Was her phone dead? Was it on silent?

 

He tried again with the same result and decided to leave a voicemail. “Ms. Mills, I wished to inquire as to your whereabouts given the late hour and the horrible weather. If you will be staying out this evening or...or if something else happened. If you would not mind letting me know you’re alright I would greatly appreciate it.” Crane hung up before he could say anything else.

 

It was another hour and a half of worsening storms when he heard the key unlocking the front door. Abbie shoved the door open and slammed it behind her, growling and cursing to herself all the while.

 

“Abbie?” Crane asked cautiously. He stood and went to walk toward her when she turned and glared at him.

 

“What?!” Abbie snapped at him. “What do you want, Crane?”

 

It was then that he noticed she was soaking wet. Her hair had deflated somewhat though it was positively soaked. Her makeup was mostly intact still by some miracle. But her dress and shoes were speckled with mud and he could see a thin sheen of water on her skin.

 

“Has something happened?”

 

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Oh, _please_. Like you actually care.”

 

“I beg your pardon?” He felt a flash of irritation inside him.

 

“You fucking heard me, asshole. You practically ghost me in my own house for months for no reason and _now_ you care how I’m doing?” Abbie was angry. But he wasn’t sure what had brought it on. She laughed humorlessly and shook her head. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised.”

 

Crane’s eyes narrowed and he folded his arms defensively. “I suppose you’ll explain to me any second now where exactly all of this is coming from.” His voice was positively acerbic. Abbie’s eyes widened incredulously

 

“Well, let’s see. I’ve been going on dates that go nowhere for months. My best friend suddenly decided to stop fucking talking to me. And my date tonight, the one I got all dressed up for, took me to his work gala only for me to find out that he’s actually fucking married! And as if _that_ wasn’t the worst part the Lyft I called home, the one I called because I didn’t think you’d care enough to come and get me, fucking broke down a mile up the road and I had to walk back home in the rain in _heels_ . Are you seeing how all that _might_ piss me off a bit?!” Abbie yelled. She was shaking with barely contained fury as she turned away from him and stomped up the stairs to her room.

 

Crane immediately went after her. “You truly believe I wouldn’t have come to you if you’d called?”

 

Abbie’s hand had barely touched the door to her room when she spun around. “THAT’S your takeaway from this?!”

 

“YES! How could it not be?!”

 

“Yes, I’m fine after walking a mile in the rain, Ichabod Crane, thank you _ever so much_ for fucking asking!” Abbie quipped, sarcasm thick across every word. “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

 

Crane ran a hand over his face in frustration. He felt his heart clamoring to get out of his chest and felt the blood rushing through his ears. “You might have avoided all that had you swallowed your pride for two seconds to CALL ME!” And now they were both angry, both hurt, both itching to scream out all the things they hadn’t had the nerve to say to each other the past few months.

 

“You don’t care about me anymore, I get it! You’ve made that _very_ fucking clear lately, Crane!”

 

He took a step toward her, his body still hardly wanting to move as the weight of her words stung him straight through the heart. “Oh, I don’t care, do I?” Crane’s voice had dropped now, deep and gravelly.

 

Abbie took a defiant step toward him. “No.”

 

He could have ground his teeth with the weight of the anger that had settled in his mouth. Instead, he swallowed hard as his fingers twitched madly at his sides. They were only inches apart now, anger and hurt radiating off both of them in waves. “Then you hardly know me at all.”

 

“Considering how long it’s been since I’ve had a real conversation with you, I’d say that tracks pretty well.”

 

“What is it you require from me, Abigail?” Crane asked tersely, his voice laced with thinly veiled irritation and restraint. “What could I give you that would convince you that I care about you?”

 

Abbie shrugged and continued glaring at him. “I don’t know, maybe an answer?!”

 

“I’m in love with you, Abigail, alright?! Is that good enough for you?!” Crane yelled.

 

At that moment, it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room. Abbie deflated, her anger suddenly replaced by confusion and curiosity.

 

“What?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all enjoyed this! Part 2 will be decidedly more filthy....


	3. An Answer (Pt. 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy part 2 to “An Answer”!

The silence between them felt absolutely suffocating. Abbie’s body seemed to now recognize that she was soaked from the rain and the air conditioning was a bit too chilly because now she was shivering. She wondered if it truly was the air or if it was Crane’s sudden admission that he was in love with her.

 

“I’m in love with you, Abigail,” Crane repeated, his voice smaller this time. “I have been for...gods know how long.”

 

Abbie’s body felt like it was buzzing. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears as she took in the man before her, the man she was in love with since she’d first laid eyes on him. They’d been friends for years but Abbie had always felt _something_ for him. And when it became apparent that she would be waiting forever to see if he had the same feelings she’d decided to start dating and try to feel what she felt for Crane with other people.

 

But this changed everything.

 

“Say it again,” Abbie commanded. “I want you to say it again.” Her voice hardly sounded like her own.

 

“What?” Crane asked. He tried not to let hope seep into his words.

 

Abbie was over to him in three strides and suddenly she was inches away from his face. “I need to hear you say it again, Crane.” Her eyes felt as if they were boring deep into his soul.

 

His words came out shaky and rattling as his body attempted to process how close she was to him. “I’m in love with you, Abigail.” Crane tentatively brought a hand up to trace all the corners of her face, committing them to memory just in case he never had the chance to be this close to her again. “I am undeniably in love with you. I always have been.”

 

When he would think back on this night later, he would recall that much of what happened next was a blur. Abbie’s lips were suddenly on his and any coherent thought capabilities ceased to function in his brain. The kiss was hungry, searching, and felt every bit like ice water after walking in the desert for months.

 

Abbie clawed at his shirt, attempting to get it over his head while being entirely unwilling to pull her lips away from his for even a second. Eventually, he’d pulled down the zipper on her dress and it fell to her feet, a golden pool fit for a goddess like her to stand in. She stepped back slightly as she pulled away from him, remembering that she was still wearing the rather painful death traps she’d walked home in.

 

Almost immediately, Crane spun them so that Abbie was against the wall. He dropped to his knees and immediately went to work untying the straps of her heels. When her feet were finally free of the contraptions he began to kiss them, moving upward, his lips leaving a trail of fire the further up he went.

 

He was acutely aware of the way her breathing hitched when he kissed her inner thigh. Abbie gripped his shoulder tightly when he kept moving up and bit back a moan when his lips barely grazed her center. He pulled back for only a moment, his eyes begging for permission to do the things he’d been dreaming to for what had felt like an eternity.

 

“Please?” He choked out.

 

Abbie nodded quickly, her eyes fluttering as his hands travelled up her thighs to grip her hips. “God, yes.”

 

That was all Crane needed to hear. He plunged forward, lapping at her center like a hungry dog. His hands somehow managed to be everywhere and nowhere at once. He lifted one of Abbie’s legs so that it rested on his shoulder and pressed his mouth as far into her as he possibly could.

 

“Crane, oh God, oh shit!” Abbie moaned and gripped his hair as she ground against his face. It was everything she needed and not enough.

 

He felt more than good. He felt like _everything_. She could hardly believe that after the shitty night she’d had she was standing in the hallway on the second floor of her house with Ichabod Crane eating her like the Last Supper. Had she known he was this good with his tongue she might have provoked him into an argument a little sooner.

 

Crane moaned as his tongue lapped languidly up and down and Abbie’s legs suddenly felt like jelly. She felt warmth build in her lower stomach, warmer and warmer until it felt like it almost hurt. Her mouth formed what might have been words to warn Crane that she was about to explode but all that came out were incoherent moans and it was all over far sooner than she wanted it to be.

 

Abbie pulled him up by his neck and kissed him hungrily. Tasting herself on him was almost surreal, but she enjoyed it anyway just in case either of them woke up the next morning feeling regret about the night’s events.

 

Ichabod picked her up and decided to transport them to her bedroom and before she knew it he was placing her gently on her bed. When he pulled away and stared at her for a bit, she felt herself beginning to wonder if what they’d done wasn’t the worst idea either of them had ever had.

 

“Is everything ok?” Abbie asked.

 

He smiled at her and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Absolutely perfect.”

 

She tugged slightly on her bottom lip. “No regrets yet?”

 

Crane gave her an incredulous look and pulled her closer to him. He found himself absently considering how warm her body was against his.

 

“No regrets. Ever. Not a single one, treasure.”


	4. Natural High

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song that inspired this chapter is Natural High by Bloodstone. Hope you all enjoy this.

They were cleaning the house one evening when it happened. After weeks and weeks of being too busy and too tired, they’d decided a deep clean of their house was in order. Abbie had lit candles in every room that had been cleaned. She’d linked her phone to her portable speaker and a playlist of all her favorite old school R&B songs she’d grown up with was playing 

 

Most of the songs were unfamiliar to Ichabod, but he’d gotten to know a few of them since he and Abbie had moved in together back in college. He’d even gone on to look up other songs by some of the artists. But this particular song was one he didn’t know. Still, Abbie paused her dusting off the bookshelves in the living room to close her eyes and smile. 

 

“This is my  _ song _ !” She began swaying back and forth and humming. When she opened her eyes, Ichabod saw ease and happiness there that he wasn’t privileged to see very often. It made his heart stop. Abbie reached out a hand to him. “Ichabod, baby, come dance with me.”

 

He smiled at her and did as she asked. She wrapped both her arms around his neck and he placed both his around her waist. When she laid her head on his chest, he placed his on top of hers as they swayed. 

 

_ Why do I keep my mind on you all the time? _

_ And I don't even know you  _

_ Why do I feel this way thinking about you every day? _

_ And I don't even know you  _

 

Abbie sang the words quietly to herself as they danced in their living room. Ichabod closed his eyes and took in a deep breath as he tried to seal this moment into his memory forever. The scent of the eucalyptus and mint candles warmed and calmed his spirit. The air conditioning hummed quietly in the background. He focused on what it felt like to have Abbie in his arms. 

 

They’d decided to become more than friends a few months ago. It had felt like the most natural thing in the world considering how long they’d been friends. She’d just come into his room one night after a late night of studying at the library. He had made dinner for her and brownies because she’d been too exhausted to cook anything. She woke him up and got into the bed next to him, cuddling him from behind. “Thank you, baby.” Abbie had said before leaning in to kiss the back of his neck. From then on, they’d been partners. 

 

_ And I'll take to the sky on a natural high  _

_ Loving you more till the day I die  _

_ Take to the sky on a natural high  _

_ Loving you more… _

 

It felt like the rest of the world had stopped for a bit to allow them this moment. He pulled Abbie a little closer to him and felt her sigh against him contently. It felt wonderful to not be rushing around the house for once, to actually be still for the first time in a while and enjoy that stillness with Abbie. He bent down to kiss her forehead and his heart fluttered when he saw the relaxed smile on her face. She kept singing quietly. 

 

_ I'm gonna try to do all the things you want me to _

_ If you just give me a chance  _

_ I'm trying to make something out of nothing _

_ And I don't even know you  _

 

She pulled away slightly to look up at him. “I love you,” she said. “You know that, right?”

 

Ichabod smiled to himself. “I do now. I love you too, my treasure.”


	5. The Den of Iniquity (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea for this two parter came from ElusiveBlackCat who wanted to see some jealous Crane! Hope you guys enjoy!

Ever since Katrina had come back it was like Abbie didn’t even exist to Crane. The two of them had been getting close to...something before Katrina came back but all that was over. They barely hung out anymore and when they talked Katrina was always around. Abbie threw herself into her work, taking on nearly three times her usual caseload. She and Crane only saw each other when a monster needed slaying.

 

“What are you doing tonight?” Jenny asked as she sauntered into Abbie’s office. An old sergeant had retired after thirty-five years on the Sleepy Hollow police force and had given her his old office as a parting gift.

 

“Neck deep in narcotics cases, Jen, why?” Abbie sat back in her chair with a sigh. Her head was beginning to hurt from reading files for the past few hours and her body felt a little stiff.

 

Jenny smiled deviously at her. “We’re going out. To that club that just opened last year. Silver’s? And before you say no, I already bought you a dress. You are gonna look so damn good Crane won’t even remember who or what a Katrina even is!”

 

Abbie rolled her eyes. “The day I get dressed up for the attention of a man, especially a white one several centuries old, is the day hell freezes over, Jen. Besides, there’s no way Katrina would even let Crane enter a ‘ _den of iniquity_ ’ like Silver’s anyway!” She found herself laughing to herself at her own poor British impression of Katrina.

 

But maybe Jenny had a point. Abbie had been engrossed in her work for months now and she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a fun night out that didn’t involve monsters or catching criminals. Knowing Jenny, the dress she’d gotten probably showed way more skin than Abbie would ever dream of showing and was sure to garner the attention of anyone who saw her in it. _Good_ , Abbie thought to herself. _I deserve some attention_.

 

“I have a plan anyway. Frank is gonna invite Crane. Katrina will probably come anyway since she can’t let him out of her sight for more than a second. Joe and Hawley will be there too. You and I will arrive last and then we’ll both take pleasure in watching Crane’s eyes bulge out of his head when he sees you in that dress and on the dancefloor.” Jenny explained. “It’s foolproof and you’ll be neck deep in dick by the end of the night!”

 

“Jenny!” Abbie reached across her desk to slap Jenny on her arm playfully. “You are too much today, you know that?”

 

Her sister stood up and walked to the door before turning around one last time to speak to her. “I’m too much _every_ day. So I’ll see you at my house when you get off work?” Jenny asked hopefully.

 

Abbie let out an exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. “Fine. See you tonight.” She laughed to herself as Jenny squealed and scurried out of the office. Abbie glanced over at the clock on her computer. Only four more hours until she was off work. With a night out at the club to look forward to now, Abbie powered through the cases on her desk with renewed energy.

 

Later that night, Abbie and Jenny were getting ready to go to Silver’s. Crane had texted Abbie twice. Once about where she’d put the batteries for his Xbox controller and again to ask if she would be home for the dinner he and Katrina were cooking. She opened the messages so he would see that she’d read them and promptly exited out giving no response.

 

Jenny was putting the finishing touches on Abbie’s hair and makeup. She curled Abbie’s already straightened hair so that it fell around her face in voluminous delicate waves. She went for a smokey eye and gave Abbie some natural looking false lashes in place of eyeliner. She had chosen a shade of lipstick that was identical to the color of Abbie’s dress.

 

“Alright, go in the bathroom. The dress is on the counter and the shoes are on the floor.” Jenny shooed her sister away and began working on her own makeup. Five minutes into finishing her eyeshadow, Jenny smiled when she heard Abbie growling in annoyance.

 

“I thought you said you got me a dress, Jen!” Abbie yelled.

 

“I did!” Jenny replied mischievously.

 

The door to the bathroom opened, Abbie glaring at her sister. “This,” she gestured to herself. “Is scraps of fabric. I don’t even think I showed this much skin the day I was born!”

 

“Oh, please! He’s gonna die again when he sees you.”

 

Abbie supposed that was true. The wine colored dress was made of something she could only call a very close cousin to latex. From the front, it appeared to be a two-piece set comprised of a bustier with a halter neckline that reminded her of the straps of a purse and a high waisted skirt that clung to her body and ended at her knees. A collection of complicated straps and zippers connected the top of the dress to the bottom from behind. Abbie was surprised at how comfortable it was, even if it did reveal more of herself than she was used to. The shoes Jenny had picked out for her were strappy platform heels that were more or less the same color as the dress.

 

Abbie couldn’t help smiling as she stood in the mirror next to Jenny. “You know, I actually look pretty good in this.”

 

Jenny smacked her lips together as she put a final layer of colored gloss on them. “Dear sister of mine, it is a gift from me to you. Consider it an early birthday present.”

 

“You’re _not_ getting out of giving me a birthday present that easily, you cheap ass bitch.” Abbie replied with a smile.

 

A few more minutes later, they were both finally ready. Jenny recommended going to a bar to pregame first and to kill time before Frank let them know that everyone had arrived to Silver’s. Abbie was against it, preferring to _not_ have to fend off the advances of the local rednecks before she could have a good time at the club. It was just her luck, then, that Frank texted Jenny on their way out of the door.

  
As they drove to the club, Abbie couldn’t help the butterflies in her stomach. Crane was with Katrina. She was his wife. They were together. But if she were being honest, she and Crane were getting close to... _something_ before his wife had come back. She was grown enough to admit that she was in love with him. But since Katrina had come back it was like Abbie barely existed to him. Even if nothing came of the evening, Abbie would be satisfied to know that she’d gotten his attention again for the first time in months. And if she was being honest, she didn’t care a bit that it might come at the expense of creating issues between he and Katrina.


	6. The Den of Iniquity (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys so I know I said this would only be two parts but as I kept writing I realized it would need to be three! So, I hope you all enjoy this second part. Third part should be up in about a week!

They were able to cut the line outside the club. Abbie tried her best not to pay any attention to the groans of people who’d been waiting to get in for nearly an hour now as she and Jenny rushed inside.

 

The inside of the club was beyond anything Abbie could have imagined. It was sleek and decorated with bright whites, blacks, and silvers. The soft indigo blue lighting cast a mysterious glow across the entirety of the club and Abbie found herself trying to take it all in. Silver’s was packed, but not uncomfortably so. The dance floor, bar, and a sprinkling of tables took up the first floor of the club. The second floor looked out onto the first, though Abbie could just barely make out small alcoves of booths tucked away into the railing so that anyone in them had a view of the dancefloor. A plexiglass elevator stood off near the bar, making it easy to go back and forth from the first to second floor.

 

Abbie had never been one for clubs. There were always too many people and the air was too hot and she never felt like she could breathe. But this was different. Silver’s was a place she actually wanted to be.

 

“Told you you would love it, Abs!” Jenny said a little loudly over the moderately paced music.

 

“You definitely picked the right place.” Abbie replied. “Where’s everyone sitting?”

 

Jenny gestured up to the second floor railing. Abbie squinted and was just barely to make out Frank waving at them. They walked hand in hand to the elevator. Abbie couldn’t help feeling like she was floating above the rest of the club patrons as they ascended.

 

Frank was waiting for them when they got out. He gave them both a once over and let out a low whistle. “Well, don’t you two clean up nice!”

 

“Me? Cleaned up? Never.” Jenny replied before pulling him in for a hug. “You don’t look so bad yourself, you know.”

 

“Figured I might find the woman of my dreams in here tonight.”

 

Jenny playfully shoved him. “You’re already lookin’ at her.”

 

Abbie rolled her eyes in amusement at the two of them. It was clear to anyone with eyes that Frank and Jenny had a _thing_. Neither of them owned up to it aside from harmless flirting. Jenny had just gotten out of a relationship with Joe Corbin the previous year. It had ended on a good note and the two of them were still very good friends, though Joe had privately admitted to Abbie that he suspected Jenny’s heart to be elsewhere. At that moment, Abbie wondered if Jenny’s half baked plan had really been about getting Crane to pay attention to his Witness partner or if it was about making some sort of statement to Frank.

 

“Everyone else is here already,” Frank said. “Ordered a few bottles for the table. Little bit of everything.”

 

They arrived to see everyone sitting in a semicircle booth. Drinks had already been ordered and everyone was exchanging friendly conversation. Abbie found herself standing a bit taller and more confident as they approached. Hawley was the one who noticed her first. Dog that he was, he licked his lips subtlely, his eyes hungrily taking her in.

 

“Well, look what the wind blew in.” He announced, a wry smile on his face.

 

The others turned to see what he meant and that’s when it happened. Joe gave Abbie and Jenny some kind of compliment that didn’t automatically register to Abbie’s ears. Katrina’s eyes widened slightly, a hollow smile coming to her face as she waved a brief greeting. But it was Crane’s reaction that Abbie had anticipated the most. His jaw had just become best friends with the floor.

 

“You look wonderful, Abbie.” Katrina ground out.

 

Crane sputtered as he attempted to form coherent thoughts again. “Yes, absolutely stunning as always.”

 

“Thanks. You don’t look too bad yourself, soldier.” Abbie winked at him, taking all the pleasure in the world at the hardened expression that came to Katrina’s face.

 

Abbie leaned in front of Crane and across the table to kiss Hawley on the cheek, smiling to herself as she realized the lower half of her body was almost entirely in Crane’s face. “Good to see you too, trailer trash.”

 

Hawley let out a barking laugh that might have been startling if the club weren’t so loud. “I love it when you disrespect me.”

 

Joe got up so that Abbie could squeeze into the booth. Jenny followed her in and Frank sat on the outside. A server came by with a few bottles of vodka and tequila before returning with two pitchers of orange and cranberry juice. Jenny poured liberal amounts of vodka and tequila into the glasses at the table and mixed in the cranberry and orange juices.

 

“This is probably gonna taste like shit but fuck it, guys, we’re getting fucked up tonight!” Abbie laughed and gratefully took the drink from her sister. Frank politely refused, stating that he was the designated driver for the evening.

 

“My liver just don’t bounce back like it used to. I can’t run with you youngbloods.” He replied.

 

Laughter came from the table as everyone took their drinks. “Oh, yeah, I forgot you’re in AARP now. Say, Frank, you mind sharing that discount?” Joe teased. The laughter got even louder.

 

Frank playfully glared at all of them. “Oh, y'all got jokes? We’ll see who’s laughing by the end of the night when y'all can’t remember your own names.”

 

Jenny laid a hand on Frank’s arm after draining her glass. “Baby, that’s the only reason we’re here! Let’s go dance!”

 

“Yes! I need to put this dress to good use anyway.” Abbie responded. She downed her drink and the one Jenny had made for Frank that he didn’t drink.

 

Frank shook his head as he stood up to allow them out. Abbie and Jenny quickly took the elevator down to the first level and got to the dancefloor just as 7/11 by Beyoncé started blaring across the speakers. The rest of the group, except Frank, followed them. Abbie and Jenny made it to the middle of the floor and began dancing with Joe and Hawley. Crane and Katrina weren’t far away but looked confused about how to dance to the song.

 

The beat was fun and called for quite a bit of twerking, grinding, and clapping. Jenny and Abbie were having fun, laughing, and smiling as a small crowd began to form around them. Abbie pulled Hawley to her and began grinding on him as his hands traveled around her body.

 

It was harmless really. Nothing would ever happen between the two of them and they both knew it. Sure, they might have fucked each other every now and then but those times were few and far between. But tonight Abbie knew Hawley would be perfect for making Crane jealous because he hated the man.

 

The crowd hyped them up as Jenny and Joe started dancing together. Ichabod was looking at Abbie, transfixed by her movements and very jealous if his stormy expression was anything to go by. Katrina was swaying uncertainly to the song as if she wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do.

 

The song finished and a slower song took its place. Hawley stepped away to dance with Joe and Jenny. Abbie reached out and pulled Crane toward her.

 

“Lieutenant, what are you doing?” He asked.

 

Abbie smiled as she began to sway to the beat. “We’re dancing, Crane! Loosen up.”

 

Under the lights she could finally see what he was wearing now. It was a dress shirt the same shade as his eyes that clung to his frame in a truly criminal way, black jeans, and black Chelsea boots. His hair, recently cut short, was styled away from his eyes and his beard was groomed perfectly. She could feel her mouth watering at the sight of him.

 

“I don’t know that _any_ of this qualifies as dancing, Abbie.” He looked around skittishly.

 

Abbie smirked at him as she felt the pleasant buzz from her earlier drinks begin to kick in. She leaned forward so that her lips barely grazed his ear. He shuddered slightly as her breath floated across his skin. “Maybe I can convince you.”

 

Abbie turned around began dancing on him. Katrina was nowhere to be seen. She spied Jenny in the middle of Joe and Hawley and her sister smiled and gave her a discreet thumbs up. Abbie closed her eyes and allowed the beat to guide her.

 

“You know, you’re supposed to put your hands on me, Crane. That’s how this kind of thing goes.” Abbie said as she leaned back against him.

 

“I hardly think that—“

 

“It’s just dancing, Crane. Relax.” Abbie replied with a smile. She reached behind her to guide Crane’s arms so that they were around her as she danced. “It’s not church, Crane. You can move them if you want.”

 

She had to admit that she relished in the feeling of his arms around her as they danced like no one else was watching them. She didn’t care if Katrina saw them. In fact, she _hoped_ Katrina saw them. Maybe she would finally realize that her and Crane’s relationship was dead.

 

For his part, Crane felt like his brain had been fried. He wasn’t sure how to think. All he knew was that the Lieutenant was finally in his arms doing some of the most unholy things and calling it dancing. And he liked it. _This_ was what he’d wanted for them. And then Katrina came back. And, duty bound eighteenth century man that he was, he had resumed his marriage with her because it was the right thing to do. But he would be lying if he said he still loved her. He didn’t. Not after everything that had happened with Henry and Abraham. But they were all the other had, two relics out of time attempting to understand the confusing future they now had to call home.

 

But was this, dancing so provocatively with another woman, the right thing, the _honorable_ thing to do? He and Katrina had been trying to make things work between them to no avail. Perhaps this was a sign that they should end things.

 

He opened his eyes and looked around at everyone else that was dancing sensually to the song playing. Katrina stood on the edge of the dancefloor with a drink in her hand and a sad look in her eyes. She nodded to herself before draining the cup of its contents. Then, she was leaving.

 

Crane suddenly pulled away from Abbie, wishing to God he could take the look of confusion and rejection away from Abbie’s face. “I have to go.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

And then, like Katrina, he was gone too.


	7. The Den of Iniquity (Part 3)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The conclusion of The Den of Iniquity! Hope you all enjoy it and please forgive me for being so late with the update!

Abbie had decided that if Crane didn’t want her after all they’d been through together it was his own damn problem. She was beautiful and smart and amazing and if he couldn’t see that someone else would one day. Besides, she looked damn good in the dress she was wearing and she wasn’t about to let it go to waste.

 

She danced more with Hawley and a few other clubgoers until she felt a pleasant and not at all overwhelming buzz from the few drinks she’d had and decided to call it quits for the night.

 

Hawley walked her over to a cab and paid for it before making her promise on her soul to let him know the instant she arrived home. The ride back was quiet and there was a steady and calming amount of rain falling. Her driver was not a chatty sort, thankfully, and she had some time to think about her feelings.

 

She loved Ichabod Crane. There was really no use in denying that now. Though part of her was still hurt by his rejection of her in the club, the larger part of her knew how futile it was to believe their whole relationship would finally leap forward just because she wore the most amazing dress on the planet one night.

 

Nothing would change between them.

 

She would pretend the night at the club had never happened. She would try to forget how right it felt for his hands to be on her body and how warm he was when she was pressed up against him. She would try to forget how he looked when she first walked to their table and he saw her in the dress. She would do her absolute best to not long for him late at night when the bed felt way too big and way too cold to be in it alone. But mostly she would try to forget how consuming it felt to love him, like feeling the sun on her skin on a perfect spring day. 

 

Before she knew it, the cab stopped. She was home. None of the lights were on inside as far as she could tell. Crane and Katrina had probably already had amazing makeup sex and had gone to sleep. Abbie tried not to picture what Ichabod might look like as he came. She failed. 

 

All of her years as a police officer had taught her to always be on her guard, to always be aware and alert. And maybe it was the alcohol but she really should have noticed Crane sitting in the arm chair in the darkened living room. 

 

“Abbie,” he breathed out as he stood. “You’re here.”

 

She clutched her chest and gasped at how he’d startled her and then her eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Of course I am! I live here, dude.”

 

“We need to talk.” His voice was stern and urgent as if he wasn’t sure when he might again have the nerve to say whatever he was going to say. “About the club.”

 

Abbie dropped her keys on the counter and sent a brief text to Jenny and Hawley to let them know she’d gotten back in one piece. She walked into the kitchen and turned on the light as Crane followed not far behind. He always went wherever she did.

 

“Look, Crane, I know what you’re going to say,” Abbie shrugged as she poured herself a glass of water from the filtered pitcher. “You’re going to tell me that it was wrong and it can never happen again. You’re going to tell me you and Katrina are finding a place of your own. But I think the first thing you’re going to tell me is that whatever feelings that exist between us can’t anymore. So, don’t worry. I know all that and I have a carton of Ben and Jerry’s in the freezer to guide me through it.”

 

She tossed back the water like a shot and then breezed past him to go to her room. But then something quite unexpected happened. Crane grabbed her arm and pulled her to face him. Suddenly they were only inches apart and she was far closer to him than she had ever expected to be.

 

“You are wrong on every count, Miss Mills.” His voice was deep and some emotion Abbie wasn’t ready to process lay thick over his words like cement. 

 

“Is that right?” Her reply came out breathier than she meant it to, like she was dizzy and couldn’t find solid footing.

 

“I was a coward. I _am_ a coward for not revealing my feelings to you sooner. I am a fool for watering a dead relationship with someone I don’t believe ever truly loved me. You have been there every day since I woke up in this new time and I took your presence in my life for granted.” 

 

He was moving closer to her now and Abbie found herself backing away slightly because if he was saying what she thought he was saying then she would desperately need to just _breathe_ for a second.

 

“Okay,” Abbie replied uncertainly. “But what does that have to do with—“

 

“Katrina is gone now, Abbie. We ended things tonight _finally_. She knew of my feelings for you and how I had attempted to bury them when she returned to me. She also knew that what we were attempting to revive had been long dead. And we decided that while we may always have a place in the hearts of one another our time together had come to its natural end.” 

 

A knot formed in Abbie’s stomach and suddenly her dress felt way too tight on her body. “Oh,” she found herself saying. “I’m sorry that happened.”

 

“I’m not.”

 

And then he got even closer and Abbie was against the wall now as he crowded her space in the most pleasant way. He lifted a hand to trace all the features on her face and Abbie told herself that the areas he touched did _not_ leave a burning and tingling sensation. When his fingers made their way to her lips she fought hard not to take them into her mouth.

 

“There is no one else in all of existence who has a hold on me as strongly as you. There is no one else my heart truly belongs to. There is no one else who makes me positively delirious with need and love and hope and every good emotion that I am capable of feeling. It is you. It has _always_ been you, Abbie.”

 

The breath had been stolen from her body. She felt like she had ascended to another plane of existence. Part of her could hardly believe that Crane was saying everything she had dreamed he would. Then she felt one of his hands traveling up her neck while the other began to pull her closer to him.

 

“Do you trust me?” He asked.

 

She nodded. Words were starting to get a little more difficult now. “With my life.”

 

His lips were on hers faster than she could have ever predicted. She was stunned into silence as she attempted to process that _this was really happening_ and she wasn’t dreaming. Then, her instincts kicked in and she pulled him as close to her as she could while kissing him as if she had plans to devour his soul. And maybe she did. After all, what better way could she get closer to him? He kissed at her neck hungrily as his hands began to travel across her entire body. It took everything in her not to moan immediately. 

 

“I have wanted you for so long, Abbie,” He breathed out as he pushed closer against her. One hand had settled loosely around her neck while the other was making its way to the very center of her. 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“And then tonight you arrived in this godforsaken excuse of an article of clothing and I knew then that you had ensnared me forever. I knew I had to make you mine.”

 

And then his fingers were tracing the outside of her and her breath was coming out in rattled gasps and honestly _how the hell_ was he moving within the confines of her dress so skillfully? His fingers continued tracing before dipping inside her briefly and pulling back out. She pushed against him in defiance. “What are you waiting for, huh? Make me yours.”

 

That was all the permission he needed. He worked away at her with reckless abandon, all the while gently squeezing her neck. She felt lightheaded and as if she were standing on the edge of the universe. He was bringing her closer and closer, and now she was in great danger of falling over. But she didn’t want to just yet.

 

Abbie reached down and stopped his hand. He looked down at her in confusion and concern. “Not yet,” she said. “I want _you_ now. And I wanna keep the dress on.” 

 

He raised an eyebrow at her and his pupils grew darker. “As you wish, Treasure.”

 

She helped him quickly out of his clothes and could hardly contain her excitement when she saw what he had been hiding in his pants for so long. Pleasantly surprised was an understatement. Crane lifted her up so that her legs wrapped around his waist and he pushed into her so quickly that Abbie would swear as she looked back on that moment that she had blacked out. 

 

They were here now at the edge of the universe, just the two of them, the way it always should have been. This time there was no one between them. There was no more reason to deny themselves their own happiness. 

 

“It’s just us,” she gasped out as the end grew nearer and nearer. “Baby, it’s just us now.”


	8. I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

She was at work when she got the call. 

 

Crane had been in a car accident on his way home from work. 

 

It was their third wedding anniversary. They were supposed to be enjoying a quiet night in with some of Crane’s phenomenal Italian food and a bottle of red wine he’d spent months trying to procure for the special occasion.

 

But he’d been in a car accident. A really bad one. 

 

Abbie had been riding around on patrols when the call came through over the police scanner. It was a rainy evening, the sort where it got ridiculously dark and gloomy while the sun was still out and just stayed that way. It wouldn’t be a rainy evening in Sleepy Hollow if at least one car accident didn’t happen. She was prepared for a fender bender with some soccer mom threatening a lawsuit against some poor delivery driver.

 

She was not prepared to see her husband’s truck partially wrapped around a pole underneath a transformer. She was not prepared to see her husband with too much red and blue and purple on his face and an eye swollen shut and completely unable to move or respond to anything around him. She was not prepared for Frank Irving to be the one to pull her away from the truck so the firefighters could force the door open and get him out to the EMTs for help. 

 

Powerless wasn’t even a strong enough word for how she felt. It paled in comparison if she was honest. There was nothing she could do. There was no way for her to help. Frank told her to get her ass in the fucking ambulance and go the hospital, they could get more cops if they needed but Crane was more important, he said. 

 

As she rode in the ambulance she fused with Crane. Her hand gripped his as tight as humanly possible. She tried not to cry at how weak his pulse felt or how the harsh fluorescent lights of the ambulance glinted over the custom wedding band she’s gotten made just for him. He was unconscious and his breaths were coming out in rattles.

 

Abbie felt a fear unlike anything she had ever known in all her life creep up and take her into a chokehold. She couldn’t lose Crane. She just couldn’t. Not like this and not when they still had so much to do together. 

 

When the EMTs handed him off to the ER doctors, Abbie fought them to remain as close to her husband as possible. She might have commanded them to get the fuck away from her so help her God or she would summon every demon she knew of to send them on an all expense paid one-way trip to Hell. She couldn’t really remember that part for sure.

 

The next time she blinked she was in a chair in the hospital waiting room with Jenny and Frank on either side of her. She couldn’t remember them ever even coming into the hospital but Frank regaled her with tales of surgeons with black eyes and empty threats and curses and how he called his wife Jenny to  _ please _ come to Sleepy Hollow General because her sister needed her.

 

The waiting room existed out of time. She could hardly say how much time had passed and the previous day felt like a thousand lifetimes ago. Every memory she had ever made with Crane felt like it was playing on an endless loop, as if her own mind was afraid to forget him.

 

A rather exhausted surgeon came into the waiting room and Abbie didn’t miss the glint of fear in his eyes as he looked at her. She felt herself standing on already weak legs, her body shaking as it tried to come down from the adrenaline pumping through it. 

 

Crane was in a medically induced coma. They had been able to fix the internal bleeding in his liver and lungs just in time but the swelling in his brain was making it harder to do much else. He’d also suffered four broken ribs, a broken leg that would likely require rods and screws, and a cracked vertebrae. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, the surgeon stressed. It was touch-and-go, he said.  It was all Abbie could do not to collapse in anguish right there.

 

When Frank came back Jenny went to pack Abbie a bag for a couple days. There was no way she had any plans on leaving Crane’s side. Frank told her to take as much time as she needed and her job wasn’t going anywhere as long as he had anything to say about it.

 

The first thing Abbie noticed when she walked into the hospital room was that it was half past four in the morning now. The rain had never ceased. In fact, it might’ve gotten worse. The bag Jenny had gotten for her and a pile of thin hospital blankets was sitting on the thin leather sofa on the other side of the room. Everything was way too bright and the air smelled like rubbing alcohol. 

 

Crane was attached to way too many  _ things _ . There was a breathing tube shoved into his nose. There was an IV with morphine dripping steadily every few seconds. Four patches with accompanying wires on his chest were attached to a heart monitor. His injured left leg hung in traction. It was so unnatural. She knew Crane would’ve hated it. 

 

In his unconscious state he looked emotionless. His face was almost entirely comprised of bruises at the moment and his left eye was still swollen shut. The blankets were tucked tightly around him and his arms sat still on top of them, as if they might keep him there forever.

 

For a while, Abbie watched his chest move up and down and tried to ignore the rattling she heard as his lungs struggled under their broken armor. Then her eyes went to his left hand where his ring still comfortably resided. When the flecks of red caught her attention under the light she moved quickly to clean the ring off as much as she could. 

 

She told the sleeping man how much she loved him, how she would never leave his side, how she promised to be there when he woke up. She begged him to come back to her, to  _ please  _ come back to her because she couldn’t take another loss like August or her mother or her father. And he wouldn’t do that to her, right? He’d promised to never leave her. 

 

She told him about how her day at work had gone until she’d gotten the call. She ended up telling him about a road trip to the Catskills she’d planned for Christmas that was supposed to be a surprise for him. His hand twitched in response and that made her smile through her tears.

 

Over the next week, Abbie was a constant fixture in Ichabod Crane’s hospital room. She showered in the bathroom with the door open and stood facing toward him so she would be able to see him if he woke up. Jenny and Frank would watch him together so Abbie could get out of the room for an hour or two and go outside. Abbie’s body was incredibly sore from sleeping on the sofa in the room and she always felt too cold but she didn’t care. There was no way she was leaving Crane’s side.

 

He woke up a little after 7pm on Thursday, a week and a half after the car accident had happened. Abbie was sitting in a chair next to the bed, settling in for an episode of some crime procedural show when she heard an odd wheezing noise next to her. 

 

The doctors had waited two days to do the surgery on Crane’s injured leg and it was now slowly healing. The swelling in his left eye had gone down and the bruises had reached their stage of healing where they were beginning to look green and yellow. The cuts on his face had also begun to heal but Abbie knew there would be tiny glass shard shaped scares decorating his face for the rest of his life.

 

He was trying to talk but the breathing tube was making that too hard. And now that he was aware that there was something in his throat he looked terrified. Abbie felt him reach for her hand tensely and she yelled out for a nurse, hardly able to believe that her husband was finally awake again.

 

It was another hour or so before he tried to talk. His doctor had been emergency paged by the nurse and had come to check on him. Everything was healing up nicely, the doctor said. Just a few more days of observation and he would be free to go. Then they were alone again.

 

Abbie handed him a cup of water that had been put on his nightstand and helped him bring the straw to his lips. He gulped down the entire cup, wincing slightly as his healing ribs complained about the sudden effort.

 

“I...I’m sorry.” His voice was raspy from going unused for a week. “All my fault.”

 

Abbie shook her head and smiled at him even as tears spilled down her face by the gallon. “No. No, baby,  _ never _ .” And she squished herself into the bed next to him to try to be close. His warmth felt like the sun had been brought into the room. 

 

“Our…anniversary, Treasure, I—“

 

“Shhh,” Abbie snuggled into his neck and used her free hand to stroke his hair. “Don’t even think about that right now. Just rest.”

 

And he did.

 

Two months later, Crane was healing up wonderfully. His leg would never be the same again and he needed a cane to get around when things got particularly painful, but Abbie told him it only added to his hot professor look he had going on. They hadn’t been able to celebrate their anniversary and the wine Crane had gotten for the occasion had sat untouched for months in the refrigerator. 

 

“Thank you, Treasure,” Crane said one evening as Abbie was laying in his lap. He had one arm draped over her and was grading papers with the other. He’d stopped for a bit to give himself a break. 

 

“For what?” Abbie replied sleepily. 

 

He bent down to kiss her forehead and pulled her a little closer to him. “For everything you’ve done and everything you are. I hardly know myself without you.”

 

Abbie smiled softly even though her eyes were closed and she was falling asleep. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere, baby. You’re stuck with me.”

 

And in that moment he felt his love for her grow a thousandfold.


	9. All Your Bad Days

He didn’t think he’d ever driven so fast in all his life. 

 

It had been a long day at work. He had gotten a scathing email from the dean of his department regarding his latest research project and was now wondering if academia was his correct lot in life. But he called Abbie on her lunch break, hoping she was having a better day than he was. She answered and he knew immediately from her voice that something was very wrong. 

 

“I’m not having a good day, Crane.” Abbie had said, sounding so small. “Can you come over tonight?”

 

It had not even occurred to him to have a second thought. He pushed through the rest of his day before the end of the day came at a pace Ichabod was hardly satisfied with. But it came all the same, and when it did he found himself driving at possibly illegal top speeds to get to Abbie.  

 

She wasn’t home yet. Ichabod used the key she had given him a few months back and let himself in. Her apartment looked as if a tornado had come through just moments before.  _ Well _ , Ichabod thought to himself.  _ That explains why she didn’t want me to come over these last two weeks _ . He hadn’t taken it personally. He had known something was going on with Abbie but wanted to give her some space.

 

Ichabod moved as fast as humanly possible as he cleaned the apartment of the woman he loved from top to bottom and back to the top again. He had stopped at the grocery store to pick up everything he would need to make her favorite comfort food: meatballs and spaghetti. It was simple but when it came to cooking, Ichabod typically had a flair for the dramatic. He had also gotten her favorite wine, a white zinfandel from France, and her favorite strawberry ice cream all in hopes of making her day a little better. 

 

The food was nearing completion when Ichabod heard the key turn in the lock. “In here, darling!” He called out so as not to scare her. 

 

He heard her sigh in exhaustion and heard the telltale sounds of her shoes and jacket coming off at the door. Not a few seconds later, Abbie poked her head into the kitchen and a tired smile came to her face when she saw him. Ichabod dropped the cooking spoon in his hand and went over to encircle her in his arms.

 

“I’m sorry about today, Treasure,” he said as he kissed her forehead. “I can see how stressed you were but the fault is mine for not inquiring about its extent.” 

 

He felt Abbie shake her head against his chest. “It’s not your fault. I get tunnel vision when work gets consuming.” She snaked her arms around him and pulled him tighter to her before letting out a deep sigh. “I missed you, baby.”

 

“I’ve missed  _ you _ , my love. Now, I’m sure you’re hungry and dinner is nearly done. Why don’t you take a hot shower? Your plate will be waiting for you.” Ichabod replied.

 

She moaned and pouted. “But I wanna stay here with you. Like this. It just feels so perfect.” 

 

“Abbie…”

 

She pulled away from him slightly and looked up at him with those adorable brown eyes he was absolutely powerless to resist. But he had to maintain his resolve. When she realized he wasn’t going to change his mind, she rolled her eyes playfully and went down the hall to the bathroom.

 

Half an hour later, they were settled in on Abbie’s giant sectional that came with a similarly large ottoman. Blankets surrounded them. A roaring fire warmed them in the fireplace and they were currently eating Ichabod’s spaghetti and meatballs. 

 

“You better be careful cooking like this, Crane,” Abbie warned before moaning rather criminally around a forkful of spaghetti. “I might marry you.”

 

She had meant it as a joke but somehow, after she said it, the air grew pleasantly heavy between them. Ichabod leaned forward and kissed her, spaghetti sauce be damned, and she started giggling like she was ten years younger. 

 

“I cannot say I would be terribly opposed to that,” Ichabod replied as he poured her a glass of wine. 

 

They shared a comfortable silence before Ichabod got up to clear away their dinner dishes. When he returned from the kitchen with her ice cream she gave him a smile that felt stronger than the sun. They continued to share in their silence as she snuggled up to him. He held her close to him and as he put on her favorite crime procedural that had been on for years now. Ichabod knew that when Abbie was stressed she liked to get lost in television for a few hours.

 

When Ichabod next looked at his phone it was past midnight and Abbie had fallen asleep on him. She looked more at peace than he could remember seeing her in the past few weeks. He went back and forth on whether or not to carry her to her room. Instead, he decided that falling asleep on the sofa wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

 

Hours later, the golden morning sun filtered softly into the room. Ichabod blinked himself awake and saw that Abbie was asleep on top of him snoring ever so lightly. His heart felt like it expanded three sizes. 

 

“You know,” Ichabod said softly. “I wish to be here for all your bad days. I wish for you to be here through all of mine.”

 

Abbie grunted sleepily as her eyes began to flicker. She blinked quickly as she woke up and yawned. “Did you say something?” She asked groggily.

 

“Only that I love you,” he replied. “Go back to sleep, Treasure.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, taking pleasure in the way she smiled sleepily and snuggled deeper into his chest. 

 

When she woke up later, Ichabod asked her if she had been serious when she’d mentioned marriage the previous night. Abbie had shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I mean, I guess if you are...are  _ you  _ serious about it?”

 

Ichabod gored her with his penetrating gaze and replied, “As a heart attack.”


	10. Rightful Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a short chapter, but depending on the response to it I may write more! Hope you all enjoy it.

They met at the Sleepy Hollow Autumn Festival in mid-October. She had been chasing after her dog and he had been playing his cello at a booth nearby. Though it had been a crisp cold day, the sky was clear and the sun was shining brilliantly across the red, gold, and orange leaves blowing around the park. The air smelled of firewood and cinnamon and baked pastries. 

 

The first time they had spoken was when a particularly strong gust of wind blew his sheet music right off the table. He cursed to himself and ran after it, unable to keep from laughing as a puppy ran after the music in an attempt to eat it. The puppy in question, a caramel-colored Portuguese Water Dog, thought Let’s Catch The Sheet Music was the game. 

 

“Artemis! Artemis, get back here _ right now _ !” 

 

He had just caught the last piece of sheet music and was trying to pry an errant sheet from the puppy’s mouth when he heard the voice. When he turned around, he felt his heart squeeze pleasantly as he took in the woman before him.

 

She had warm brown skin that seemed to glow under the sunlight. She was wearing a cream-colored sweater dress that barely touched the bottom of her thighs, black over-the-knee heeled boots, a tan wool coat and a black beret over her thick coily hair. Her eyes were the color of dark apple cider and honey mixed together. 

 

“Oh, hello there.” He breathed out. He felt the puppy shoving against his knees and he reached down to pick up the precious creature, wobbling slightly as he tried to keep her from eating his newly caught sheet music. “I suppose you’re looking for this little treasure?” 

 

The woman gave him a warm but exasperated smile. “Yeah. Sorry about her. She broke off her leash. I’ve been running after her for like five minutes now!” 

 

“Well, I shall return her back to you now,” he said. He looked down at the puppy who had started licking his neck. “You know, you should really take a man to dinner before you kiss him!”

 

The woman laughed and he swore the sound made everything around him appear more colorful. “Well, she has a thing for cute British guys, just like her mama. Don’t you, sweet girl?” 

 

He handed her the puppy back in a daze. “She was quite helpful with trying to get my music back, you know.”

 

“Yes, you were, weren’t you, baby?” The woman was cuddling the now squirming puppy. She then balanced Artemis in her arms and reached out a hand toward him. “I’m Abbie, by the way.”

 

“Ichabod, but only my parents call me that. Most people simply call me Crane.” 

 

Taking her hand felt like standing in front of a fire after being out in the cold all day. Years from now, he would tell her this interaction was the first time he knew he loved her. She would laugh and say that was impossible because they didn’t know each other yet. And he would reply that when love recognized its other half it felt like the world around you was previously out of focus and had been shifted into its rightful place.


	11. Ten Years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back! I decided not to do a followup to Rightful Place because nothing I wrote felt right. I ended up being inspired to write something different! That said, there's a bit more in this chapter that could allow room to write a second part so if you like this one ad want more leave a comment! Enjoy!

He had never intended to be gone for as long as he had. What was supposed to only be a trip that lasted a couple of months had ended up being ten years. Ten years. He’d bounced around from country to country looking for information on his role as a Witness and getting as far as he could from the only person in the world who knew him down to his soul. He couldn’t confront the feelings he had for her, and after Katrina’s death, everything felt too confusing. So he did what he did best: he ran. 

 

He wrote letters to Abbie. He hadn’t ghosted her completely. For the first four months, she didn't answer a single one. He knew she was likely hurt by his sudden departure. But eventually, she began to respond. The responses had been extremely brief at first but as the months and then years went by, they grew longer. 

 

Abbie Mills had become a decorated FBI agent, her dream. She had met someone named Danny Reynolds during her training and had moved to Washington DC. They got engaged. He’d balled up that particular letter. She’d invited him to the wedding. He made up some excuse about being unable to make it due to a family emergency even though they both knew he had no family alive on earth. There was a period of six months when he got no letters from her. 

 

The next letter she sent informed her that Danny had been killed in the line of duty during a drug bust. Her grief was palpable and he swore he saw teardrops at various points on the paper. They continued to keep in contact and she informed him of everyone’s places in life. Jenny and Joe were expecting a baby girl and got married at the local courthouse as soon as they found out. They weren’t embarrassed, Abbie explained to him. They just felt like the time was right.

 

Grace Augustina Corbin was born on New Years Day just like her grandfather August had been. Abbie had included pictures of her in the letters she sent and he’d seen a few on Abbie and Jenny’s respective social media accounts. She was a fluffy little thing that smiled all the time and barely cried, according to Abbie. A brief thought raced into Ichabod’s mind as he wondered what children with Abbie might look like. He banished it immediately. Abbie informed him that she was moving back to Sleepy Hollow to be closer to Jenny, Joe, and Grace and that she needed something slower than what the FBI was. He suspected she was also trying to escape the memory of Danny but he didn’t say that.

 

Ichabod had had an eventful ten years away from Sleepy Hollow as well. He too had met someone, a man by the name of Charlus Holmes, and they fell in love. Abbie had commented on his attraction to someone with an equally odd but charming name as him and expressed her good wishes. He might have been imagining it but he could have sworn there was melancholy when she’d written them. 

 

Ichabod got a job teaching at a university in Scotland before he and Charlus did their traveling around the world. The distraction helped for the first two years but he grew tired of having to hide who he truly was and lie to Charlus about his life. The two ended their relationship amicably and were best friends still. When Ichabod had grown tired of travel and eventually academia, he began to feel discontented with his life in Scotland. 

 

And that was when he knew.

 

The last letter he wrote to Abbie was a week before his flight.  _ I’m coming home _ , it said.  _ I hope you’ll be there _ . 

 

He didn’t mean it in the physical sense. He knew she lived in Sleepy Hollow again. He knew she wasn’t married or in a relationship again. He knew that, with the exception of Joe, Jenny, and Grace, that she was alone. But none of that meant she would be welcoming to him when she saw him. They were completely different people now. Ichabod had more salt in his hair than he had the last time she’d seen him. He kept his hair cut short and wore tortoiseshell glasses. His body was generally the same as it had been, slim and built, but he had a few aches and pains that hadn’t been there before. There were more wrinkles on his face now. He was no longer the clueless man who’d woke up almost three hundred years out of his own time. 

 

The plane ride back to New York was agonizing. All he could think about was seeing Abbie again. She was supposed to be picking him up from the airport and had even offered to let him stay with her while he got settled back into the town. He wondered how she had changed in the ten years since he’d seen her. There were pictures exchanged between them in their letters but that was altogether different. His mind raced with all the possibilities and he wondered if the jet would fly faster if only he willed it to.

 

He raced through the airport and to the baggage area, impatiently snatching his large duffle bag with all the things he saw fit to bring with him from the conveyor belt and sped through to the pickup area. If she hadn’t been facing his direction he wouldn’t have recognized her.

 

Her hair was longer now, a burnt caramel color with splashes of dark blonde and piled into a messy bun on her head. She was still generally thin but had gained the barest amounts of weight since he had seen her. She wore a white linen jumpsuit with a halter neckline, tan leather sandals, and a matching bag. 

 

When she saw him, her eyes lit up and she smiled tamely at him, more reserved than she used to. He could see the barest tinges of grief in her eyes still. She was still Abbie. But a different one. 

 

“Hey, you,” she said. Her voice hadn’t changed. 

 

He dropped the bag and ran to envelop her in a hug, picking her up off the ground and spinning with her still in his arms. A few passersby whooped and cheered and he couldn’t help smiling as he felt her laugh quietly against him.

 

“I’ve missed you.” It was the truth. He had. And even though he’d fallen in love with Charlus at one point, his feelings for Abbie had never changed. 

 

“I’ve missed you too, Crane,” Abbie replied. “We have a lot to talk about.”


	12. Ten Years Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know pt. 2 is a little short but I promise to make up for it in pt. 3! Fluff and angst and happy endings are on the way!

The ride from the airport was filled with pleasant but shallow small talk considering how long it had been since they’d last physically seen one another. Crane felt like he couldn’t stop looking at her. She was the same. Almost. But so very different. He couldn’t figure out  _ how _ . 

 

_ Life _ , he murmured to himself.  _ Life has happened to us both _ .

 

They stopped at their favorite diner which was, surprisingly to Crane, still standing. Their favorite waitress, however, was not. “Betty passed away maybe six or seven years ago,” Abbie explained. “She had an aneurysm in her sleep.”

 

Crane felt more uncomfortable than he cared to admit at that moment. His mind attempted to grapple with all the things that really  _ could _ have happened in his ten years away from Abbie. The thing that felt bigger than anything else was that  _ she _ could have been killed in the line of duty instead of Danny. And that made his stomach turn viciously.

 

“So why’d you decide to move back after all these years?” Abbie asked as she tucked an errant curl behind her ear. Her tone was curious and he detected hints of long-buried resentment in her voice. 

 

He took a sip of his drink before saying, “It was time for me to come home.”

 

Abbie nodded absently and a faraway look came across her face. The silence between them felt uncomfortable for Crane. It might have been ten years since he’d seen the love of his life but the expression on her face when she was angry or disappointed hadn’t changed.

 

“You should’ve come back sooner.”

 

That was all she had the chance to say before their food arrived. They ate in silence and the drive to Abbie’s house was much the same. The home she lived in now was not the one they had shared at the time he left. It looked fairly similar but it appeared to be much smaller and was a forest green colored craftsman with white trim. 

 

Abbie popped the trunk and helped Crane with his bags. The inside of the home was tastefully decorated in warm neutral tones and smelled faintly of eucalyptus and mint. “Guest room is down the hall across from the bathroom,” Abbie explained. “Let me know if you need anything. I have to get to work.”

 

Then, Crane was alone. The house suddenly felt too big for him.

* * *

Work for Abbie was the candle shop she’d opened upon her return to Sleepy Hollow. She’d stuck around in DC for a few years after Danny’s death but when she had decided to come home she knew that the law enforcement life was over for her. She had gone farther than she had ever wanted to and had lost more than enough. Everything had been quiet on the Witness front for years since Abbie had helped create a secret team within the FBI whose job it was to monitor supernatural activity across the country. She hadn’t had to even  _ think _ about a demon in years. 

 

When Crane left after Katrina died it had felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest. She had loved him and he’d left her without notice and thought writing her letters from wherever he was in the world was enough to make things right. It wasn’t. Then she’d met Danny. 

 

She had been so lonely after Crane left that she got into a relationship with Danny even though she knew it wouldn’t solve anything. But it distracted her. With their jobs at the FBI, she and Danny were apart enough to never have to face the truth of their relationship. He’d wanted to be married because he thought that was what he was supposed to do at the age he had been. She said yes because she didn’t want to be alone.

 

And then Danny was killed on the job and she was alone again.

 

Jenny had tried to be there for her as much as she could but Abbie shut her out. It wasn’t until Jenny told her she was pregnant that something in her realized she needed to go home and be closer to the people who  _ knew _ her, the people who  _ really _ loved her. And her relationship with her sister had been much better for it. 

 

But now Crane was back and would be living with her for the next while. If she was honest with herself she didn’t want him to ever leave. Sure, the two of them would need to hash things out and it would likely be ugly but the moment she saw him in the airport it had felt like something empty inside her had been filled and she felt whole again for the first time in years. Her feelings for him had never changed, no matter how angry and betrayed he’d made her feel. 

 

She closed up the candle shop when she noticed the sky darkening. A steady stream of customers and restocking had kept her distracted as she considered what she wanted now that Crane was there again. But now she had to go home and he would be there. 

 

It was a little brisker than she would have liked for a summer night when she got into her car. Her stomach reminded her that the food from the diner had not quite sustained it and she decided to stop off somewhere to fortify herself before going home. 

 

She should have known he would be awake when she got back. Of all the things that had changed in the years they had been away from each other, Ichabod Crane remained a fairly nervous man, particularly when he was in conflict with someone. 

 

He was sitting ramrod straight on her sofa, his eyes trained on the door, his fingers tapping anxiously against his thighs when she came in. 

 

“Good evening, Abbie,” he said immediately.

 

Her surprise at him still being awake quickly faded and she smiled briefly at him. “Evening, Crane.”

 

He gestured to the space next to him on the sofa. “I think a talk is overdue.”

 

She nodded and did as he asked. “It is.”

 


	13. Ten Years Pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final installment of the Ten Years story! I hope you guys like it!

Sitting in the living room late at night on the sofa with Crane reminded her so much of the old times they’d shared together that she had to blink to jolt herself back into the present. She had to remind herself just how much both of them really had lost and how much had changed in ten years. Ten whole years. She felt tears well up in her eyes as the pain of Crane’s absence hit her like a tidal wave. 

 

And it did come in waves. 

 

When she’d picked him up from the airport she’d assumed that she had safely moved on, that she really had dealt with her feelings for him and about him leaving her. But now that he was back again and right in front of her no less, the pain felt as fresh as though it were yesterday.

 

“I shouldn’t have left without telling you,” he began. “I was so overcome with grief and anger and confusion that I reverted to my instincts which were to run away as fast as I could and as far as I could. You deserved better than that, Abbie.”

 

She didn’t try to hold the tears back. They needed to fall. They were a reminder to her that what she felt for Crane was real, that it mattered. “I would’ve come with you, Ichabod. We could’ve figured it all out together!”

 

He shook his head as if he were answering a thought in his own head. “No, I could never have expected that from you, Abbie. You had dreams and goals meant to take you so much farther than being...lieutenant. I could not ask for you to put your life on hold once more for me after how I treated you when Katrina was around.”

 

“Crane, you don’t get to make those kinds of decisions for me!” Abbie’s voice rose as she sat up, that long-buried resentment boiling up inside her. “Even if I had said no at least I would’ve been given a chance. You didn’t even do that! You...assumed you knew what I would do when you didn’t even really know me anymore by that time!” 

 

Ichabod looked properly shameful as he listened to her. He even moved closer, though Abbie pretended she didn’t see that. Besides, there was no time to actually even process what  _ that _ meant. 

 

“We used to be inseparable, Crane! We were a  _ team _ no matter what we did or how mad at the other we were. Then  _ you _ thought you’d decide for me and I lost ten years with my best friend because of ridiculous pride! It’s not fair! All this time we could’ve been--”

 

She stopped herself short of saying “ _ in love _ ” because she had no guarantee he felt the same. It was always so hard to tell how much of what he did was just who he was and how much was because he cared about her.

 

_ I’m coming home. I hope you’ll be there. _

 

It was all he’d written in his last letter to her. Just eight words. And yet they’d given her so much hope. He could have gone anywhere he wanted but he’d left living and traveling all over the world to come back to Sleepy Hollow of all places. 

 

“You didn’t visit. We never even talked on the phone! I forgot what you looked like after a while, you know,” Abbie said eventually, her voice thick with emotion. “God, I started forgetting what you sounded like and  _ that _ ...you broke my heart, Crane.” 

 

It was all she could say at the moment. Anything else would send her straight to sobbing and she just didn’t want to do that anymore. Not since Danny. And now she was used to crying alone with no one to comfort her. 

 

He took her hands firmly and...was he  _ closer _ now?

 

“I will never forgive myself for leaving the way I did, for our bond changing so drastically. But given the man I have become, I find it difficult to regret leaving. There was so much I realized about myself, so much that  _ had _ to change within me for me to find the strength to face my demons as it were.”

 

“Crane, you—“

 

“Abbie.” When had his voice gotten so gravelly and intense? “I was in love with you.”

 

_ Was. _

 

If she listened hard enough she could hear her own heart-shattering.

 

“And now you’re not. So why are you here now?” Her voice came out hardened. She was already preparing herself to be let down. What the hell was she supposed to do with twelve years worth of love for a person who didn’t love her back?

 

His hold on her hands grew tighter and his gaze suddenly felt too intense.

 

“Because I never stopped.”

 

It felt like time had frozen for a moment. Abbie was taken back to all the nights she’d woken up from dreams about her and Crane, all the times she stared longingly at him when he wasn’t looking, all the times she’d wondered what the hell he saw in Katrina when Abbie herself was right there. But if what he was saying was true…

 

“I saw you at the airport and it felt like standing in the sun. I felt peace in my soul that I hadn’t felt in years. I was just so happy to be back in your orbit.”

 

Her mouth was going dry as she stared at him in disbelief. No. There was no way…

 

“I know it is the pinnacle of insanity to ask you to love me back, to love me  _ more _ than you would a friend. I know it is likely unwise to tell you that my love for you has grown exponentially and I feel fit to burst just looking at you. More than anything, I know your forgiveness and trust will not be easily given.” He said. “But I love you. I have been, am, and will always be in love with  _ you _ , Grace Abigail Mills.”

 

It felt like every part of her body froze at that moment as her brain attempted to process what Ichabod Crane had just told her.

 

_ I love you. I have been, am, and will always be in love with you. _

 

She closed her eyes tightly, her hands fisting as she tried with all her might to wake up. This had to be a dream. There was no way the man she’d loved for twelve years was telling her he felt the same feelings she did.

 

Right?

 

“Abbie?” There was concern in his voice as he observed her reaction to his words. She had a pained expression on her face and he suddenly felt like he’d said all the wrong things. “Are you quite alright?”

 

“Kiss me,” she ground out, her eyes still closed. If this was all real she would feel it. She would know he was telling the truth if she felt his lips on hers. She’d dreamt of it thousands of times over the years. It had felt like some unreachable and abstract thing for so long. “Hurry up and kiss me before you change your mind.”

 

“Open your eyes.” His gravelly voice commanded firmly. She was compelled to do as he asked. 

 

If she thought his gaze had been intense before it was downright goring now. Never before had she seen such raw desire for  _ her _ in another’s eyes. Not even Danny. Crane looked like he wanted nothing more than to devour her whole. She wondered if she could allow herself to let him.

 

He was so close now that she could feel the heat radiating off him. His eyes roved across her face like he thought it might be the last thing he ever saw. His hands came up to hold her face gently and he began to trace his away across it, leaving cold fire in his wake. 

 

“I waited ten years for you, Abbie. My mind’s made up.” It sounded like it was the simplest thing in the world to him. “I’m home now. Are you here?”

 

His letter. The last letter he’d written to her.  _ I’m coming home. I hope you’ll be there _ . 

 

She closed the very short distance between them and pulled him as close as she could to her. Maybe it was unwise to want more than this with Crane but she’d done her waiting. She’d put in her time. And resentment be damned, she  _ wanted _ this. That much, she knew.

 

“I’m here,” Abbie said as she pulled away for air eventually. He gazed at her with so much love and adoration she felt as if she’d been bowled over. 

 

She felt fear flash through her. Fear that this was all a joke or, worse, a mistake. Fear that now wasn't the time, not when she still mourned Danny. But Danny had passed away nearly four years ago. It was time for her to move forward. And that didn’t mean forgetting Danny and how much she’d loved him. It didn’t mean that all the problems between her and Crane could even be fixed in a day. It meant being present and acknowledging the woman she’d become was someone to be proud of, scars and all. 

 

She smiled and kissed where his neck and shoulder met, taking pleasure in the shiver that went down his spine. “I’m still here.”


	14. The South of France

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cute little drabble was inspired by an Avengers tweet I saw this morning! Hope you enjoy it!

“The south of France would be beautiful for the wedding, you know.” 

 

Abbie looked up from the book she was reading as he passed her a warm mug of chai. It was bitterly cold outside and the two of them had opted for a day in instead of risking their lives in the wind. 

 

“What?”

 

Crane sat next to her and lifted her legs to place them on his thighs. He absently began rubbing her feet as her attention began to drift back toward her book. It was a thrilling love story about two people who had to prevent the apocalypse together. She’d been burning through it all day. 

 

“The weather is absolutely stunning and I have an old friend with a beautiful lakeside chateau in--”

 

“Crane,” Abbie sighed as she marked her page in the book and closed it. “What on earth are you talking about?”

 

“The wedding, of course.” He replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. 

 

Confusion rippled across Abbie’s face. “What wedding?”

 

Crane stared at her a moment before realization dawned on his face. “Oh, dear.”

 

“Is something wrong?” Abbie asked in concern. 

 

He shook his head in response. “No, treasure, nothing’s wrong. I’ve only just realized that I forgot to bloody  _ ask _ ! I thought I did…” He patted his pockets before cursing to himself. “Shit. I suppose I didn’t!”

 

Abbie sat up and took Crane’s hands in hers. “What are you talking about? What did you forget to ask?”

 

He smiled at her sheepishly and leaned forward to give her a resounding kiss before pulling away. “Grace Abigail Mills, will you marry me?”

 

He had expected her to say yes, to kiss him back with unbridled passion. He supposed he also expected her to say no. What he hadn’t expected was for her to start laughing so hard that she started holding her stomach. 

 

He stared at her in confusion. “Did I say something wrong?” 

 

When she’d finally gained a semblance of control she leaned forward and kissed him before promptly dissolving into another fit of laughter. “YES!” She yelled out eventually before jumping onto him. His arms automatically went around her as she straddled him. “Yes, I will marry you, Ichabod Crane.”

 

He let out an audible breath of relief. “Oh, thank heavens. Might I ask what amuses you so?” 

  
She smiled at him and kissed his forehead. “Nothing, just...only  _ you _ would forget to propose and plan the wedding anyway. And by the way, I think the south of France is a wonderful place for a wedding.” And so they spent the rest of the day planning and kissing and planning some more until they fell asleep on the sofa in each other’s arms with ridiculous smiles on their faces.


	15. Hold On, I'm Coming

They had been apart for two years now. Abbie had moved to New York City for a job as section chief with the FBI and Ichabod was all the way in Los Angeles as a premier history professor at UCLA. By all accounts, they should have just called their relationship where it was and broken up. How the hell were they supposed to sustain their relationship that long across nearly three thousand miles?

 

But they had found a way.

 

They took turns coming to see each other once a month for exactly four days. Ichabod had been able to arrange his teaching schedule so that he only taught all his classes Tuesday through Thursday. It was difficult and tiring but he would do it a thousand times if it meant he could stay with Abbie.  It was harder for her since she was in the FBI. Many times their four days together had been cut short to two or one or just a few hours because some very important case had sprung up at the last minute.

 

They FaceTimed one another four times a day at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and right before they both fell asleep every night. There had been many mornings when Crane’s snoring had woken Abbie before her alarm had. 

 

But now Abbie was embroiled in a case that had the potential to make or break her career and she hadn’t been able to call him as much. They hadn’t seen each other in three months. The strain on their relationship was more than apparent and Abbie had wondered if her dream job was worth what it was doing to her relationship with Crane. But he refused to let her quit. He knew how long she had dreamed of a job like the one she had, how much work she’d put in. He would never ask her to quit. 

 

“I’m sorry, baby,” Abbie told him on the phone after she collapsed into her bed at 2 am. “This case has been so insane and I haven’t had any time for myself.”

 

Nearly three thousand miles away, Crane sat against his headboard with a book in his lap and his phone balanced on one shoulder against his ear. “I know, treasure.” There was silence from her end for a while before he heard sniffling and stifled sobs. He shoved the book from his lap and sat up straighter. “Abbie, what’s wrong?”

 

Abbie buried her face in her pillow as she tried to get her tears under control. “I haven’t been anything but stressed for the last three months. I can’t even remember what it’s like to sleep more than three hours a night. I’m barely even eating! I just...I feel like I can’t do anything right lately, not even... _ this _ between us. I miss you so much, Crane. And I don’t mean just seeing you, I mean  _ living _ with you.”

 

His heart broke as he heard her crying, knowing there was little he could do from so far away. “I feel the same, treasure. Every night I go to sleep without you next to me hurts more than the last. But we’ll be together again soon, Abbie. I promise.”

 

“No, we won’t.” Abbie retorted cynically. “There’s no way this can go on forever. You are working your dream job and I am too. There’s no way I’d ever ask you to quit that just for some…”

 

She trailed off as she tried to find the right words. Instead, she settled for a frustrated sigh and put her face in her hands.

 

“Abbie, my love, this isn’t just  _ some _ anything. You know that. I intend to be with you for the rest of my life if you’ll have me. This distance is merely temporary. “ Crane got out of bed and tripped over a box as he went to retrieve his laptop. He supposed he could speed up his plans now. Abbie needed him. 

 

She was silent on the phone for a while before she eventually spoke again, her voice coming out in a shaky whisper. “I can’t see the light at the end of this tunnel, Crane.”

 

He continued clicking around on his laptop before closing it and placing it on his nightstand. “And what do we say when we feel that way?”

 

She laughed exasperatedly. “Crane, it’s not—“

 

“Indulge me.”

 

She huffed. “Fine. ‘I’m here. You’re here. We’re there.’”

 

They had said that whenever one of them lost sight of any of their shared goals. Lord knew how much Crane had said it when he was finishing up his Ph.D. Abbie had heard her share when she was going through academy training with the FBI. It was their own little mantra.

 

“‘And if we aren’t there yet…” Crane prompted.

 

Abbie rolled her eyes from her end as she smiled reluctantly. “‘We will be.’”

 

Crane smiled from his end of the phone. “You need to sleep, treasure. I promise this will all be over soon.”

 

He FaceTimed her and placed his phone next to his head as they prepared to go to sleep. Abbie went first as she often did. Crane, however, was considering all the plans he’d made and how he might need to spend the next few days accelerating them.

* * *

Abbie got a break four days later when her boss had told her she wouldn’t be allowed back until she took some time for herself. It was fair, Abbie thought, considering she’d fallen asleep at the wheel and had nearly crashed them off the Brooklyn Bridge. Though no damage had been done, her boss saw that Abbie was stretching herself way too thin. She protested about leaving them in the middle of such an important case but her boss informed her that the case was quiet for the moment and she could be of no use if she burned herself out.

 

So, here she was at 6 am padding around her kitchen sleepily as her sleep schedule had decided to rebel against her. She was dressed in one of Crane’s long sleeve t-shirts, shorts, and fluffy socks. The scarf on her head covered two flat twists she intended to take down later if she left the house which she probably wouldn’t. It was 3 am in Los Angeles so she likely wouldn’t get to talk to Crane for another few hours. 

 

Abbie had just taken down a box of pancake mix when the doorbell rang. She had been lucky to have been able to get a rather nice brownstone in East Harlem on a quiet street. It was decently sized and didn’t feel nearly as cramped as she had expected it to when she moved in. She thanks the universe that she didn’t live in a shoebox as she walked to the front door.

 

She couldn’t think who on earth would be at her door so early in the morning. She never got visitors in the first place. When she looked through the peephole she nearly fainted. Before she could even think, she yanked open the front door to see Ichabod Crane standing there, the early glow of the morning on him. He smiled as soon as he laid eyes on her.

 

“Might I come in?” Crane asked. “It’s terribly cold out.”

 

She stepped aside and let him in. When she turned back to face him after she locked the door she was greeted with a kiss that made her acutely aware of how long it had been since she and Crane had fucked.

 

He had her up against the door in a second and lifted her so he had better access to her. Her legs automatically wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer to her. 

 

“Should we talk first?” Abbie asked breathlessly. “How are you here? It’s Wednesday, baby. Don’t you have classes?”

 

Crane kissed his way down her neck and to her shoulders before coming up to place a kiss on her forehead. “Not anymore.”

 

“What do you mean ‘not anymore’?” 

 

He decided this conversation, short though he wished it were, was best suited someplace Abbie could be on a decidedly more solid surface. He moved them to the large island in the kitchen. Now that she was on the countertop, Crane stood between her legs and her arms were now bracing behind her.

 

“I had to quit. I received an offer from another university that I simply could not refuse.” Crane stated. 

 

Abbie narrowed her eyes curiously. “Where at? You didn’t tell me you were applying anywhere else! I’m not ready to leave New York yet and—“

 

“Treasure. You won’t have to. The job is at Columbia, which as I recall, is a thirteen-minute car ride and half an hour’s walk from this brownstone.” 

 

“I don’t understand,” Abbie replied. “It’s the middle of the year! How did you swing this?”

 

Crane wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, trying his damnedest to ignore the friction that movement caused between the two of them. It was getting slightly more difficult to focus on the conversation.

 

“A friend of mine is the department head there. Caroline Glade. I told her to keep me in mind if she heard of any open positions at any of the universities here. Turns out, Dr. Mary Wells was ready to retire as her husband is ill. She informed me, I applied for the position, and several Skype interviews later, here I am, treasure.”

 

Abbie kissed his chest and hugged him tightly, trying to dispel the emotion rising up within her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

 

She felt his hands begin to rub her back. “I wanted to surprise you. And I also didn’t want to give you false hope in case I didn’t get the job.”

 

She supposed that was fair. Abbie sighed as she reveled in the feeling of being held by him. “I’ve missed you so much, baby.”

 

“As I have missed you. But I’m here now. We don’t need to fly across the country to see each other or have all our conversations on the phone. I can hold you as we fall asleep and wake up next to you make pancakes for you since you never seem to make them right.” He chuckled to himself as they pulled away slightly. She playfully swatted him in the chest.

 

“Oh, shut up. Just cause mine don’t come out golden brown doesn’t mean they aren’t perfect.”

 

“I think that’s  _ exactly _ what it means.”

 

He kissed her before she could swat him again. Things grew hungrier and more urgent between them and it didn't take long for Crane to get rid of Abbie’s clothes. He had just come up from kissing her breasts when she informed him rather pointedly that he was still woefully underdressed. 

 

They rushed upstairs to Abbie’s bedroom, though she supposed it was now  _ their  _ bedroom. Abbie pushed Crane onto the bed and quickly undressed him before straddling him. He moaned as he felt her center move against him. 

 

“Abbie, don’t—I want to—“

 

“We can stop if you want, baby,” Abbie said as she looked down at him. “Do you want to stop?”

 

He looked at her like she’d sprouted five heads. “Oh God no! I merely meant I wished for this to not be so rushed! I had a plan, you know.”

 

She smiled down at him deviously. “Baby, we have more than enough time to go slow. But right now I’ve missed you and  _ I _ have plans to ride you right now.”

 

He chuckled deeply to himself. “Then who am I to stand in your way?”

* * *

Later that day, when they were both well fucked and well-fed, they were cuddling on the sofa watching some new drama Abbie had gotten hooked on when she decided to check her phone. She hadn’t paid much attention to it the past day or so, but when she checked she saw that she had a new text message from Crane. He had sent just a few hours before she’d woken up that morning, just before he’d showed up on her doorstep. It was only four words but they made her heart feel like it might burst:

 

_ Hold on. I’m coming. _


End file.
